Internet sites, replete
with convincing testimonials, tout "psychic surgery" for almost any ailment,
a rocket-fuel chemical as a cure for cancer, highly toxic herbs to treat
liver disease, and magnets for those suffering from ulcers or dementia.

A number of patients
around the nation reportedly have died or suffered life-threatening setbacks
after dabbling in alternative cures hawked in cyberspace.

Linda Malone, of
Fort Worth, Texas, had a cancerous tumor removed from her breast in September
1997, and, fearing chemotherapy as a follow-up treatment, turned to the
Internet.

Typing in the words
"breast cancer," she found numerous sites promoting hydrazine sulfate,
a compound used in making rocket fuel.

They "made it sound
like it was a miracle cure for cancer," Malone, 58, said. "It was supposed
to kill any cancerous tumors that might try to appear."

During the three
years she took the chemical under the care of a local naturopath, the cancer
returned to her breast and spread to her liver.

She was given less
than a year to live when she checked into a hospital Sept. 25, and is now
undergoingchemotherapy.

Malone warned anyone
cruising the Web for medical information to confirm what they find with
a reputable medical doctor.

An unidentified 55-year-old
Hawaiian man reportedly died of liver and kidney failure after taking hydrazine
sulfate - obtained online without a prescription - to treat his sinus cancer,
according to doctors at the Moncrief Army Community Hospital in Fort Jackson,
S.C.

In 1997, the journal
of the American Medical Association reported that a patient died of kidney
failure after taking "oil of wormwood" obtained online.

Many cases in which
patients are harmed by using treatments found online are believed to go
unreported because the victims are embarrassed. But medical experts say
such incidents are likely to increase with the number of people using the
Internet and as the number of health-related sites swells to meet the demand.

As of December 1999,
34.7 million Americans sought medical advice on the Internet, a 56 percent
jump over the previous year, according to the FTC.

Meanwhile, health-oriented
Web sites jumped from 2.8 million to 9.5 million between 1998 and 2000,
one study found.

Sites offering medical
advice and treatment openly hawk herbs and dietary supplements in what
is now a $15 billion-a-year industry.

The FTC has targeted
a handful of sites that hawk miracle cures and products, forcing them to
stop making unfounded claims.

In April, the FTC
settled fraud charges with two sites that pushed the chemical CMO (cetylmyristoleate),
at $65 per bottle, to treat arthritis, cancer and asthma, and a third site
that sold bottles of Essiac herbal tea, at $14.50 per bottle, as a cancer
and AIDS cure.

Among the questionable
and potentially hazardous products and treatments touted on the Web are:

"Aristolochia," also
known as "snakeroot" and "Dutchman's pipe," used in weight-loss concoctions
and as a treatment for liver ailments, menstrual problems and cancer.

Studies have
shown the toxic herb has caused kidney cancer and failure in scores of
cases.

Oxygen and ozone therapy
for AIDS and cancer.

"Bio-Resonance" treatments
that purport to change the "electromagnetic emissions" from cancer cells.

"Psychic surgery," in
which a spiritual healer claims to remove sick tissue barehanded, without
making any incisions. The late comic Andy Kaufman had such treatment for
lung cancer, and he died two months later.

An AIDS Web site,
originating in the Netherlands, cites the work of a Nobel Prize-winning
chemist and other scientists in insisting that there is no proof the HIV
virus causes the disease, that AIDS is not sexually transmitted and that
victims are poisoned to death by antiviral drugs.

A 1999 University
of Michigan study found a Web site operated by the Encyclopedia Britannica
that claimed a cancer that afflicts children had a 95 percent mortality
rate. In fact, the survival rate is 75 percent. The error was later corrected.

Ohio State pediatric
specialists found that 48 of 60 sites run by major medical institutions
contained inaccurate information on how to treat childhood diarrhea.

Dr. Gerald Bernstein
of Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan said he's had his share of misinformed
diabetes patients asking about unproven treatments.

"What the Internet
should do is provide patients with a basis to be better informed for when
they see a professional," Bernstein said. "It should not lead you to be
your own diagnostician."